.NET remains deeply embedded in enterprise software, but applications built on older versions of the framework can become increasingly difficult to maintain, secure and scale.
Modernization is therefore becoming a priority for organizations that still depend on .NET Framework applications but want to move toward newer architectures and cloud environments. The challenge is that large application portfolios can contain years of dependencies, custom code and technical debt.
Artificial intelligence is changing how some of these modernization projects are approached. AI assisted code analysis, refactoring and automated testing can reduce some of the manual work involved in upgrading applications while giving engineering teams more visibility into dependencies and potential migration risks.
The opportunity is particularly relevant as enterprises try to connect modernization with broader cloud and AI strategies. Rather than upgrading applications simply to reach a supported framework, companies can use the process to create more scalable and AI ready technology environments.
Top .NET modernization companies in Europe
Sonata Software has developed a dedicated AI enabled .NET modernization offering that combines its .NET expertise with generative AI capabilities from Microsoft and Amazon Q. The approach covers application discovery, dependency mapping, automated code refactoring, testing and migration to .NET 8 and beyond.
The company has also developed an agentic modernization process for .NET applications running on AWS and Azure. Sonata’s Frontier Workbench and migration agents can support application assessment, reverse engineering, code generation, testing and deployment, with every agent action logged for auditability.
A recent US mortgage platform modernization illustrates the approach. Sonata upgraded a legacy application from .NET 4.x to .NET 8 using Amazon Q, AWS Transform, GitHub Copilot and generative AI. The project resulted in a 30% reduction in time and effort and up to five times higher request throughput.
